Oregon State Women’s Basketball Re-Enters AP Poll Top 10

Just a day after the Oregon State men’s basketball team finally snagged their first conference win of the Pac-12 season, the Beavers’ Womens Team has continued their climb to becoming one of the best programs in all of college basketball, as they received the #10 overall ranking in the country in the latest edition of the AP Top 25 Poll. It was the first time that Oregon State had returned to the Top 10 in the country since Week 14 (Feb. 6th) when a 22-2 Beavers team was ranked 9th overall.

Oregon State is currently 25-3 on the season and is coming off a flawless 2-0 week in which they knocked off Colorado and Utah in a duo of hard-fought road games. The Beavers held both the Buffs and the Utes to 49 points in each of their outings and have now won 10 of their last 11 contests heading into Friday night’s matchup with #8 Stanford. The Cardinal and the Beavers are both tied atop the conference with a 14-2 league record but Oregon State currently holds the head-to-head tiebreak over Stanford at the moment.

The 2016-2017 edition of the Beavers are hoping to mirror the success of last season’s team, who earned a #2 seed in the NCAA Tournament and knocked off Troy, St. Bonaventure, DePaul and Baylor in the big dance, before falling to the eventual NCAA Champions in undefeated UCONN. The Huskies are unanimously ranked as the #1 team in the country in the poll at 26-0 overall and coming off four-straight National Championship seasons. The Beavers are the second-highest ranked team in the Pac-12 after the aforementioned Stanford squad.

At the moment, the Beavers are led by top scorer Sydney Wiese (15.0 PPG), who has emerged as one of the top talents in not just the Pac-12, but in all of college basketball. Wiese is flanked by the junior duo of 6’ 5” center Marie Gulich (9.9 PPG) and Brenna Brown (8.6 PPG) on the interior, as well as freshman Mikayla Pivec (7.0 PPG) and senior Gabriella Hanson (6.6 PPG) in the backcourt. Additionally, several other key players in 6’ 3” senior Kolbie Orum (6.3 PPG), 6’ freshman Kat Tudor (5.8 PPG) and 6’ 2” sophomore Katie McWilliams (5.1 PPG) have all made their sizable impacts as well.

Oregon State returns to the hardwood on Friday, February 24th at home against #8 Stanford, in a game that is likely to decide the regular season champion of the Pac-12. The game is slated for an 8:00 PM PT tip-off and is one of just two regular season games remaining for the Beavers. Oregon State will complete their regular season on Sunday, February 26th, in a home match-up with California.